A delightful challenge from WANDERER this Friday, which I felt was on the easier side of his offerings. Thanks WANDERER.
I wonder if there is something happening with the word play on NUMBER and THREE, ETHER etc.
FF:9 DD:7
| Across | ||
| 1, 5 | PERFECT NUMBER | Ideal anaesthetic? 6, possibly (7,6) |
| cryptic def; a perfect number is defined as a number thats equal to the sum of its factors (for 6, that would be 1+2+3). | ||
| 8 | TITCHIEST | One appearing in Bird Box is smaller than all the others (9) |
| I (one) in [ TIT (bird) CHEST (box) ] | ||
| 9 | THREE | Large plant without hard root’s last hereabout displaying this clue’s root (5) |
| doubly clued; TREE (large plant) outside H (hard); T (rooT, last letter) HERE*(about, anagrind); square root of 9 (this clue) is 3 | ||
| 11 | INTER | Team missing start of season (5) |
| wINTER (season, missing start) | ||
| 12 | PRAYER RUG | Grape curry a non-starter? Surprisingly, you’d get one in a mosque (6,3) |
| [GRAPE cURRY (non starter, without first letter)]* | ||
| 13 | OLD WOMAN | Frightful low moan gripping daughter, wife or mother (3,5) |
| LOW MOAN* containing D (daughter) | ||
| 15 | ALUMNI | Former pupils from an island inhabited by Scottish smoker (6) |
| LUM (scottish for chimney, smoker) in [ AN I (island) ] | ||
| 17 | TRENDY | Keeping close, go in (6) |
| END (close) in TRY (go) | ||
| 19 | ORANGISH | Somewhat shady leader in Africa into horsing around (8) |
| A (Africa, first letter) in HORSING* | ||
| 22 | ASTRAKHAN | Car used by Asian ruler in Russian city (9) |
| ASTRA (car) KHAN (asian ruler) | ||
| 23 | TOPEE | Flower put back into what driver uses for a hat (5) |
| OP (flower = PO, reversed) in TEE (what driver uses) | ||
| 24 | EXALT | Promote latex pants (5) |
| LATEX* | ||
| 25 | MINESHAFT | Descending passage of Wanderer’s has animated this organ (9) |
| MINE (wanderer’s) [HAS]* FT (this organ) | ||
| 26, 27 | STORMY WEATHER | 1930s song characterising the war effort initially (6,7) |
| cryptic def; read as STORMY being anagram indicator applied on “THE WAR E (Effort, initially)” | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PETTICOAT LANE | Slip road leading to Market Street (9,4) |
| PETTICOAT (slip) LANE (road) | ||
| 2 | ROTATED | Went round gallery housed by Pole (7) |
| TATE (gallery) in ROD (pole) | ||
| 3 | ETHER | Number of clue the required entry here? Yes and no (5) |
| hidden in “..cluE THE Required..”; i think the latter part of the clue refers to an anagram of the clue number (THREE) | ||
| 4 | THESPIAN | Actor has second play’s opening covered by the Scotsman (8) |
| [S (second) P (Play, opening)] in THE IAN (scotsman) | ||
| 5 | NOT BAD | Playing bass half-cut? Don’t, OK? (3,3) |
| BAss (half cut) DONT* | ||
| 6 | METHEGLIN | Came across Henry, say, having left home to get spiced mead (9) |
| MET (came across) H (henry) EG (say) L (left) IN (home) – i believe the clue works without “spiced” as well. | ||
| 7 | EARDRUM | Murder revolving around a personal vibrator (7) |
| MURDER* around A; naughty clue | ||
| 10 | ENGLISH SETTER | Dog turns green after eating thistles stupidly (7,6) |
| GREEN THISTLES* | ||
| 14 | OLD MASTER | Painting woman’s framed (3,6) |
| cryptic def; expansion of O (old) MA (master) in wOMAn | ||
| 16 | BRAND NEW | Mint Danny almost dissolved in cup of tea? (5-3) |
| DANNy* in BREW (cup of tea) | ||
| 18 | ENTRANT | Competitor taking part in event ran terribly (7) |
| hidden in “..evENT RAN Terribly” | ||
| 20 | IMPEACH | Charge one politician, with every one considered separately (7) |
| I (one) MP (politician) EACH (every one considered separately) | ||
| 21 | SHIMMY | In two different ways, Wanderer’s after quiet dance (6) |
| SH (quiet) [ I’M MY (wanderer’s, in two different ways) ] | ||
| 23 | TESLA | Least flexible measure of magnetic flux density (5) |
| LEAST* | ||
*anagram
Another rewarding Wanderer crossword— thanks Turbolegs for explaining the number 6 in the “ideal anaesthetic ” clue — I thought the “6” referred to 6d, the “spiced mead” clue. (I guess mead in sufficient quantities would be a number as well.) By the way I never heard of METHEGLIN and I was unable to parse it.
My parsing was MET (came across), H (Henry), E.G. (say), L (left), IN (home). It was as delightful a clue as some of the others — like TRENDY. Wanderer must have chortled when he came across PETTICOAT LANE. Another great puzzle, anyway. And thanks to Turbolegs
Thanks to Wanderer and Turbolegs. I agree, a delightful puzzle. I could not parse OLD MASTER but did piece out METHEGLIN. TITCHIEST was new to me (my LOI) so I needed to get PETTICOAT LANE before it fell into place.
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
Quite a complex puzzle from Wanderer here, be it the longer double-clued ones, the one with an abbreviation of the components hidden in another word and a couple of new words (6d and 23d, as a measure). Didn’t manage to parse 9a (didn’t work out the second bit), 26a (even after seeing the anagram of the second word), 3d (second word play again) and 14d (dunno whether I ever would have seen that).
Stumbled on my last one in, writing in an unparsed PRANKISH.